I agree the lenders knew more than we did and their motive for...

I agree the lenders knew more than we did and their motive for putting it into receivership - if the project remains technically sound and potentially still viable - begs some questions. But I guess that’s always their prerogative as a secured lender.

Re availability of the technical report, private companies - even publicly traded ones - are not subject to this Act as it only covers information collected or held by government and its agencies. Happy to be corrected but, other than the litigation discovery process, I believe the only viable route to gaining access to this technical report is therefore via the lending arrangement with the government’s Clean Energy Finance Corporation.

The independent assessment that formed the technical report was presumably conducted by expert contractors for the lenders, of which CEFC is one, not for SO4 itself. Because CEFC is a government “agency” it is subject to the FOI Act. Other lenders are private so we cannot ask them for it, but if CEFC received the report and possesses it, it could be considered information that is subject to the Act.

I suspect however that CEFC would claim it to be commercial-in-confidence and reject a request. Lenders’ due diligence into a borrower’s affairs when considering whether or not to loan funds is routinely confidential information. I don’t think the report was paid for or was the property of SO4 at any point so SO4 was probably not obliged under any rules to release it to the market. It’s not even clear whether they had a full copy of the report given to them.

None of this disguises the fact there are some serious questions to be asked. I’m just not sure, short of a lawsuit, how easy getting information like this will be.